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Where We are Reporting From

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This map shows where most of our reports are coming from. The plan is to add reporter information, photos and links to each of these pinpoints, making this map a geographic guide to our reports.

Dipity Does Time Lines

A time line of an Obama press conference on the Gulf oil spill.

This is a cool tool for making time lines and incorporating them into your website. Some of the professionals use this free service and get good results. You can, too. Best way to do that: Go beyond text to use photos, even video clips. (You can do this!)

Why use a time line? Many reasons.

A lot of journalistic storytelling follows a temporal arc. That means, it passes through time and is best told chronologically. It can be in the past, like a story about the history of your town, or it can extend into the future, like the key dates leading up to an election. It can be big-time, like tracing a career. It can be small. Picture what a schedule of upcoming concerts or performance would look like as a multimedia time line. Think about an obituary, done as a time line.

Use your imagination. And take it to Dipity.

– Joe Grimm

Some Tips on Handling Video, Photo

One good thing leads to more

OK, OK, this is not what we intended, but big applause for the person in our class who did an on-camera interview. That takes initiative and guys and I recognize both qualities.

We can learn two good lessons from this still, which used to be the frame that linked to her video — the journalist fixed it.

1. The rule of thirds would have us move the subject off dead center and off to one side or the other. This is a great little technique, whether you are shooting stills or videos and it is represented in some of the great artwork of history.

2. YouTube randomly chose this frame to be the index frame that linked to the whole video. Because our subject’s eyes were cast upward, we wound up with a funny moment. So, the journalist just chose a new one. Seldom will YouTube pick the best frame for linking. So, in YouTube, choose the one you like best.

3. Let’s give kudos again to the reporter and note that an image like this, with that play arrow in the middle, should be widely recognized by now as a video player. If you are linking to a photo gallery that does not include that little triangle, you can add your own if you have some PhotShop skills, or simply say so in the cutline.

Perk Up Your Report with AP Photo Archives

Remember when we toured the library and Hui Hua Chua showed us how to research stories and some of thecool resources available? One of the best is the Associated Press photo archives that we have permission to use. To give your stories some extra pop. always include some visual elements that will help explain the story or, at the very least, give your audience something interesting to see.

The Crayola 64 Box of Crayons, which debuted in 1958, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2008. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Your competition does it, you should, too.

Here’s how to find the photos (in case you forgot):

Go to http://er.lib.msu.edu/ and in the search window for “Find other resources,” type “Associated Press.” This will take you immediately to AP Images. You will have to supply tor student ID number, but once in you can search the images to your heart’s content, finding images to surprise and delight your readers. It is an excellent source of art for national stories that you want to localize and can even furnish some fairly generic art for local stories.

I found photos of digital smoking systems, Asian carp, books, Gov. Jennifer Granholm, chocolate — all things we have written about, but did not illustrate. I even found a photo of Sparty.

So, first choice: Shoot your own photos. Second choice: Use others we have access to. Last choice: Do nothing,

Free Photo Editor

So, you’re at home where you don’t have PhotoShop, yet you need to resize a photo, crop one or reduce the density of information in it.

Use Picnik. Free, fast and easy.

Once you have your image the way you like it, click save & share. When you save it, save it at a JPEG compression ratio of 6 or 7. (The full number of 12 allows more information into the photo, but slows download times without adding much quality.)

Thanks to Bonnie Bucqueroux

Blockquote Tag with a Head Shot

This was a new one for me. I saw it in an article by Kara Venturino-Eyde.

She has inserted a headshot inside a blockquote used to highlight a quote by someone. This happens so often this is a great technique to use. Of course, to do that, you need to have a photo. A small photo. Like a headshot.

The blockquote tag, a handy piece of html, is
<blockquote>Quote goes here.</blockquote>

You can do the same thing in VISUAL mode be defining the text you want to indent and clicking the buttton with the open quote mark.